Ohio State with ‘feeling of embarrassment’ after loss to Iowa

IOWA CITY - In the moments following Iowa's stunning, decisive 55-24 victory against No. 6 Ohio State, the Buckeyes head coach and players had that thousand-yard stare going.

The news conference for head coach Urban Meyer was exceptionally short - the shortest of this season, according to Ohio State beat writers in attendance at Kinnick Stadium - at 3 minutes, 30 seconds.

Meyer and his players - quarterback J.T. Barrett was not made available after throwing four interceptions, just center Billy Price and defensive end Tyquan Lewis were - didn't have clear answers for what just happened. All they could come to was Iowa 'played very well against us.”

Did they see this coming at all? Were there any signs in practice?

'No,” Meyer said simply.

Was there a lack of energy during the game?

'I didn't feel that,” Meyer said. 'We didn't play well.”

That much was clear. A Buckeyes team that had put up 50 or more points on four opponents, 49 points on another and were averaging a nation-leading 46.2 points per game managed just 24 points and 371 yards of total offense.

A Buckeyes team that had given up 302.5 yards and 18.2 points per game on defense saw the Hawkeyes put up 487 yards and 55 points - the most in the history of the series, and 20 more than Iowa had ever scored against Ohio State.

The sense of disbelief in what had just happened permeated the interview room as the three Buckeyes representatives answered questions. The inevitable 'letdown” questions were asked. The 'did they throw anything at you that you didn't expect” questions were asked.

Both got 'no” as an answer.

They seemed to honestly not understand how it all happened.

'We expect to go in every game and dominate and play like the silver bullets,” defensive end Tyquan Lewis said. 'It's kind of hard to define it. It's a feeling of embarrassment. As a leader, I feel like I let a lot of people down.

'I wish I could tell you (what happened).”

What did happen and didn't need an answer from Meyer or his players to see was the struggles from Barrett and the Buckeyes' defense in the second half especially.

Barrett came into Saturday night one of the most efficient passers in the country, completing 74.9 percent of his passes in Ohio State's last six games, which followed the Week 2 loss to No. 5 Oklahoma. The senior quarterback had 25 touchdowns and one interception while completing 69.5 percent of his passes overall this season.

On Saturday night, Barrett was 18 of 34 for 208 yards - at one point in the fourth quarter sitting at 9 of 21 - with three touchdowns and four interceptions. For perspective, Barrett had four interceptions in the entire 2015 season and seven all of last year.

His first interception was on the first play from scrimmage, returned by Amani Hooker for a touchdown. The other three were from star defensive back Josh Jackson - one of which a one-handed highlight-reel play that very well could be shown during the NFL Draft broadcast in April.

While he struggled through the air, where Iowa shut Ohio State down in the second half was in taking away the zone read. The Buckeyes had scored on big plays and gotten chunks of yards in the first half as Barrett controlled the game with the run for several series.

That changed in the second half.

In the first two quarters, Barrett ran for 49 yards and the Buckeyes 122 on the ground. In the second half, Barrett ran for 14 yards and the Buckeyes 41.

As much as Meyer can say he needs to go back and watch film and as much as the players say they need to regroup and refocus to better understand what happened, for Iowa, figuring that out on defense while its offense ran up and down the field was the answer.

'We kept on going, series after series, trying to force three and outs,” linebacker Josey Jewell said. 'Early on they kind of got on us, on the linebackers pretty quick. They chipped coming down and got on us very fast, so what we had to do was change some stuff up with the ends and change some stuff up inside to be able to free ourselves up and get downhill instead of playing in the second level the whole game.

'He's got those Heisman votes. He's a great player. Everyone has a bad game every once in a while. It's nice to be able to shut him down like we did.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com